A dialogue in useful phrases
By: Elisabeth Tonnard
Publisher: Elisabeth Tonnard
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Acquoy
Language: eng
Subjects: Artists' books
Notes: Artist's book. Pages bear phrases and sentances in Enlgish. Those on the left-hand page begin with "I" and those on the right-hand page begin with "You".

"A Dialogue in Useful Phrases is a book based on "conversational phrases" that were found in Grenville Kleiser's Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, an optimistic handbook from 1917 providing "felicitous expressions for enriching the vocabulary." Kleiser's conversational phrases starting with 'I' were taken and placed opposite those starting with 'you'. The 'I' phrases are running in alphabetical order down the verso pages, the 'you' phrases down the recto pages. A dialogue is formed from the random meetings of these phrases. It is a dialogue in the purest sense, a dialogue that expresses nothing other than itself. The book has a square format to indicate the empty room where such communications might be taking place." -- from the artist's website.

Limited edition of 250 numbered copies.

Rare Book copy: No. 67.